Reese's passion is taking the Gospel to drug dealers, gang members and prostitutes.

"I want to love and show those people that they're not a forgotten people group," he says. "They're not an unimportant people to Christ. Everybody has the same value at the foot of the cross."

Reese and his wife Ramona have served in Brazil since 1999 and have raised their daughters Gloria, 13, and Alicia, 9, in Rio's megacity milieu. The Reeses are from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga.

Ramona works with women in the favelas and other low-income women in Rio. In the past few years, God has shifted her outreach to include middle-class wives and mothers she meets at the gym and at her daughters' school and ballet practices.

Though Ramona rarely enters violent neighborhoods with her husband, his being there affects the whole family.

"I think I was really naïve and didn't really understand what was going on the first four years," she says. "But then you start seeing people die -- people that you know. And you understand what's really going on...."

That reality for Ramona hit home the night the police called Eric and asked him to serve as a mediator in a potential gunfight. He was the only person both sides trusted.

She didn't want Eric to go, but she didn't ask him to stay. She told her husband to follow God's leading.

"I was so afraid. You know how when you're just so afraid, you can't do anything but pray?" Ramona says.

Looking back, the Reeses realize how Eric's decision to go that night opened doors to share about Christ.

"I don't find that Jesus said, 'If you've got people with guns in front of you, don't share the Gospel,'" Reese says. "I'm not going to let men stop me from sharing the Gospel. No matter what the obstacles are, you see, the Gospel has got to get to these people." Read More

My research would indicate ... less than a third of Evangelical women are currently willing to trust you as their president.

--Land in letter to Gingrich

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land has penned an open letter to Newt Gingrich, telling the Republican presidential candidate that he must address his past infidelity and marital history if he is to win over evangelical voters -- particularly evangelical women. Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Nine in 10 pastors plan for their churches to host Christmas Day services this year. A LifeWay Research study of 1,000 Protestant pastors shows that 91 percent of Protestant pastors plan to have services on Christmas Day while 69 percent said they plan to host Christmas Eve services. Read More

GENESEO, N.Y. (BP) -- A New York judge has handed opponents of New York's gay "marriage" law a major victory, saying that state law may have been broken prior to the bill passing the legislature in June.

The decision by Judge Robert B. Wiggins to allow the lawsuit to go forward is noteworthy because the pro-family groups behind the suit are seeking to have the law declared invalid. New York's attorney general had asked the court to dismiss the suit, but Wiggins declined.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- A leading advocate for persecuted Christians overseas has called on the presidential candidates for 2012 to promise they will promote religious liberty.

Open Doors USA announced Nov. 28 its request that each candidate for the presidency, regardless of political party, sign the Presidential Pledge for Religious Freedom. By endorsing the pledge, a candidate would promise to uphold religious liberty for Americans of all beliefs, nominate judges who are committed to backing r... Read More

EDITOR'S NOTE: From the States, published each week by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board's call to embrace the world's 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups also are... Read More

About it: The app by the Dallas school includes audio of sermons and other speakers and allows the audio to be either streamed or downloaded. The app also features blog entries and resources by seminary professors and administrators, along with a calendar of events.

GuideStone Financial Resources

Platform: iPhone.

Price: Free

About it: The GuideStone app allows users with GuideStone accounts t... Read More

Formed in 1946 by the Southern Baptist Convention, and supported with Cooperative Program funds, Baptist Press (BP) is a daily (Monday-Friday) international news service. Operating from a central bureau in Nashville, Tenn., BP works with a large network of contributing writers, photographers and editorial providers to produce BP News.